Cable take up driven by VoIP

The number of people subscribing to cable telephony took an enormous leap in 2006, according to the latest research from In-Stat.

A study carried out by the organisation reveals that in excess of 22 million people across the world were now profiting from cable telephony, a remarkable increase from the 15.8 million witnessed in 2005.

Looking ahead to 2007, the market is forecast to raise revenues of $10.4 billion, up from the $7.9 billion recorded the previous year.

In-Stat's Worldwide Market for Cable Telephony Services report attributes the rapid growth to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), due to the cost efficient advantages it offers compared to circuit-switched telephony.

Evidence of this can be seen in the US where there are now 6.6 million VoIP subscribers compared to 2.8 million circuit-switched subscribers.

Mike Paxton, an analyst at In-Stat, explained: "In a growing number of markets around the world, cable TV operators consider telephony service to be an integral part of their telecommunications service bundle.

"This has led to increasing service availability in North America, Europe, and in a few countries in Asia."